Akin to The DaVinci Code, this gripping thriller morphs the dark intrigue of the Renaissance into today's double-dealing world of commerce to show that in the business world, sometimes you have to kill to make a killing. Revealing the secrets of 21st-century marketing becomes the ultimate quest in this thrilling story. Rejecting marketing's past principles, this book offers new direction and instructs marketers to see beyond the smokescreen of customer-first, customer-focused cliches currently in use and offers guidelines more appropriate for today's fast-moving, high-tech world. Unlike any other marketing book, this entertaining interpretation of ideology is also a credible educational tool.
A marketing thriller? This book is like one of those marketing fads. An interesting idea but will it catch on?
I absolutely dig that SA chapter where the Brady Bunch were cooking up fad marketing terms for sale. And the acronyms? Hilarious. It's a reflection of how ridiculous marketing is getting these days.
But this book wasn't just a rip-roaring yarn with some marketing theory thrown in. It actually got me thinking.
For instance, the book made me realise that all these marketing techniques are consumer-oriented. What if it's the wrong way to go? The marketers who have failed, are said to fail because they didn't follow marketing theory to the letter. Is this really true?
The other thing was (and this, I thought was utterly insidious) was when the Phllips character said "If 99% of the world's marketers accept what the textbooks tell them, then the remaining 1% is in a highly advantageous position." Whoa! Sounds like a would-be could-be conspiracy.
It almost explains why we somehow hear of those who become marketing winners are actually those who don't really follow the rules.